90 



immediately struck by something unusual m the colour of the 

 bark (the leaves were not out) so I at once tasted and found it 

 Apple ; one single small branch was growing out from under the 

 stock of this Oak bush, the exact counterpart of all the other 

 shoots. ITy disappointment you may conceive, but not the cha'^ria 

 of my kind guide who had treasured up for two years the know- 

 ledge of this magnificent "find," and in his own parish too ! " 



^J'f ^»- i^ tlie Quarterly Review (Vol. 114 p. 219,) speaks 

 of the Mistletoe as " deserting the Oak " in modern times " It 

 IS now so rarely found on that tree, as to have led to the su<.o.e3. 

 tion that we must look for the Mistletoe of the Druids, not in the 

 Viscum Album of our own trees and orchards, but in the Loranthua 

 Europ^us, an allied parasite, which is frequently found growin- 

 on Oaks in the south of Europe." A very unnecessary confusion 

 It seems to me, has been created between the plants, and I pur- 

 posely avoid entering further into the subject for the reason given 

 in the Eeview. "There is no proof that the Loranthus ever 

 grew further l^orth than at present ; whilst the Mistletoe figures 

 tJot only in the traditions of the Celts, but also in those of North- 

 ern nations, as will be shown in the next Bection. 



